figs & Mark

Our Navy and Apalachicola years, one of my great happinesses visiting my parents in late summerTime was the fig tree in the side yard just off the kitchen; me circling the tree, walking round it again and again and having my breakfast by picking ripe figs and eating them right off the tree. The tree would be loaded with fruit that seemed to ripen so rapidly that a fig that was nearly ripe this revolution would be ready to pick and eat next Time, a minute or so later. 

It was a joy in life that I miss. But we do buy figs in grocery stores this Time of year, Brown Turkey figs and Black Mission figs. Deep, dark purple almost black, the fully ripe Black Mission figs we've bought are more sugary sweet. My memory of figs on our fig trees is that they must have been Brown Turkey, lighter color with more pink and green unto purple. 

The trouble with having your own fig trees, though, is getting out there to pick them before the birds. A bird will peck a bite out of this fig, and that fig and the next fig, basically spoiling every fig on a tree without eating even one of them. Bad word Time.

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My breakfast with hot & black this morning: two soft, ripe figs, one each Black and Brown. Hold by the stem and bite, two or three bites per fig.

POD: area clergy lunch, hosted at St Andrew's Episcopal Church, where I grew up. In the parish hall, which is named Byrne Hall after Fr Tom Byrne, who was our rector my late Cove School and Bay High into college years. If it's still there, I'll check today, there's a portrait of Fr Tom that Linda's mother painted maybe about 1955 or so. 

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Thursday, moving quickly toward September 7 and my first session with Dr Dan's adult Sunday school class, on the anonymous evangelist, whoever he was, that the Church named "Mark" after the John Mark who traveled with Paul and was reputed to have been a colleague of St Peter. Popular lore is that he wrote in Rome based on stories Peter told him, but that's just tradition, we do not actually know who the writer was or where he was when he wrote. My preference is to visualize Mark sitting on a stone of the torn down Temple in 70 AD (“Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down”), writing his good news about Jesus, Messiah, Son of God, Son of Man, as Jerusalem burned around him. 

It's still forty years after Good Friday and Easter, though. I like the tradition about John Mark with Paul and Peter, but I don't take it seriously. More serious is my visualization of whoever we call "Mark" seeing the need to get all this down in writing before everyone who knows the stories is dead: he jots down each little story on yellow sticky notes, lines them up in the chronology that best suits logic, reason, and his agenda, climbs up on that torn down Temple stone with a stack of papyrus, and commenced writing. 

Within a hundred years or so, early Church fathers were calling it "kata Markon" (according to Mark), and the name stuck. In due course, maybe early fourth century AD, as the canon of the New Testament was settled, kata Markon was one of four gospels that met criteria for being included: generally thought to be apostolic (by one of the twelve apostles or a close associate), recognized throughout the existing, developing Christian Church, in the liturgical use of being read aloud during worship, and did not contradict by-then existing Church doctrine.

So, the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark (1:1-45, YLT)

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

1 A beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God.

2 As it hath been written in the prophets, `Lo, I send My messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee,' --

3 `A voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, straight make ye his paths,' --

4 John came baptizing in the wilderness, and proclaiming a baptism of reformation -- to remission of sins,

5 and there were going forth to him all the region of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and they were all baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

6 And John was clothed with camel's hair, and a girdle of skin around his loins, and eating locusts and honey of the field,

7 and he proclaimed, saying, `He doth come -- who is mightier than I -- after me, of whom I am not worthy -- having stooped down -- to loose the latchet of his sandals;

8 I indeed did baptize you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.'

9 And it came to pass in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John at the Jordan;

10 and immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens dividing, and the Spirit as a dove coming down upon him;

11 and a voice came out of the heavens, `Thou art My Son -- the Beloved, in whom I did delight.'

12 And immediately doth the Spirit put him forth to the wilderness,

13 and he was there in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by the Adversary, and he was with the beasts, and the messengers were ministering to him.

14 And after the delivering up of John, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of the reign of God,

15 and saying -- `Fulfilled hath been the time, and the reign of God hath come nigh, reform ye, and believe in the good news.'

16 And, walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon, and Andrew his brother, casting a drag into the sea, for they were fishers,

17 and Jesus said to them, `Come ye after me, and I shall make you to become fishers of men;'

18 and immediately, having left their nets, they followed him.

19 And having gone on thence a little, he saw James of Zebedee, and John his brother, and they were in the boat refitting the nets,

20 and immediately he called them, and, having left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, they went away after him.

21 And they go on to Capernaum, and immediately, on the sabbaths, having gone into the synagogue, he was teaching,

22 and they were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as having authority, and not as the scribes.

23 And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out,

24 saying, `Away! what -- to us and to thee, Jesus the Nazarene? thou didst come to destroy us; I have known thee who thou art -- the Holy One of God.'

25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, `Be silenced, and come forth out of him,'

26 and the unclean spirit having torn him, and having cried with a great voice, came forth out of him,

27 and they were all amazed, so as to reason among themselves, saying, `What is this? what new teaching [is] this? that with authority also the unclean spirits he commandeth, and they obey him!'

28 And the fame of him went forth immediately to all the region, round about, of Galilee.

29 And immediately, having come forth out of the synagogue, they went to the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John,

30 and the mother-in-law of Simon was lying fevered, and immediately they tell him about her,

31 and having come near, he raised her up, having laid hold of her hand, and the fever left her immediately, and she was ministering to them.

32 And evening having come, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all who were ill, and who were demoniacs,

33 and the whole city was gathered together near the door,

34 and he healed many who were ill of manifold diseases, and many demons he cast forth, and was not suffering the demons to speak, because they knew him.

35 And very early, it being yet night, having risen, he went forth, and went away to a desert place, and was there praying;

36 and Simon and those with him went in quest of him,

37 and having found him, they say to him, -- `All do seek thee;'

38 and he saith to them, `We may go to the next towns, that there also I may preach, for for this I came forth.'

39 And he was preaching in their synagogues, in all Galilee, and is casting out the demons,

40 and there doth come to him a leper, calling on him, and kneeling to him, and saying to him -- `If thou mayest will, thou art able to cleanse me.'

41 And Jesus having been moved with compassion, having stretched forth the hand, touched him, and saith to him, `I will; be thou cleansed;'

42 and he having spoken, immediately the leprosy went away from him, and he was cleansed.

43 And having sternly charged him, immediately he put him forth,

44 and saith to him, `See thou mayest say nothing to any one, but go away, thyself shew to the priest, and bring near for thy cleansing the things Moses directed, for a testimony to them.'

45 And he, having gone forth, began to proclaim much, and to spread abroad the thing, so that no more he was able openly to enter into the city, but he was without in desert places, and they were coming unto him from every quarter.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

RSF&PTL

T89&c